Guinea

Since 1987, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) has worked in over 145 countries to advance good governance and democratic rights. Although IFES is not currently engaged in programming in this country, previous work, research and/or other relevant items are highlighted below.

From 2013 to 2017, following Guinea’s first-ever democratic and pluralist legislative elections in September 2013, which resolved a political crisis that had engulfed the country since the 2010 presidential election, IFES sought to strengthen legislative and political processes in the country. Although the program was initially planned with local elections in mind, a political crisis that began in May 2014 and the 2014 Ebola epidemic complicated Guinea’s democratic transition. In response to these crises, IFES deftly reoriented its programs to address these new challenges and ensure that project infrastructure was utilized to its fullest potential.

With support from the European Union (through the United Nations Development Program), IFES worked in partnership with Guinea’s Regional Councils of the Organizations of Civil Society of Guinea and the Prefectural and Communal Councils of Civil Society Organizations to strengthen civil society’s capacity to promote democracy, dialogue and citizen participation through the creation of formal spaces for dialogue and exchanges, called Civic and Electoral Education Centers (Centre d’education civique et électorale, or CECE), in the five municipalities of Conakry. Civil society organizations held open-door days on civic engagement in the CECEs; broadcast radio spots on the importance of civic engagement; and held roundtables on themes including the importance of local elections. CECEs were opened in each of the seven regional capital cities under IFES’ United States Agency for International Development-funded program. These regional CECEs hosted the first-ever meetings between citizens and deputies during a parliamentary recess in August 2014. With funding from the Department of State, CECEs in six regional capitals also hosted awareness-raising meetings with community leaders on the Ebola crisis.